Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

All courses in the composition sequence (WR 115, 121, 122) teach writing as a process, requiring revision over multiple drafts; require 2 instructor conferences; and include principles of citation.

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

1. ADAPT: Experiment with different genres.  
2. INQUIRE: Locate relevant information sources in a process of inquiry.
3. CONNECT: Use rhetorical tools to convey and support a perspective.
4. REFLECT: Analyze their own learning in writing.

Students will connect to resources and develop the metacognitive skills they need to succeed in WR 122 and at PCC generally.

Students will begin to see themselves as lifelong students of reading, writing, and rhetoric.

Students will transfer their learning to personal goals and larger initiatives that matter to them.

Students will see themselves as contributors to larger conversations.  

• Low stakes writing for the self and the instructor (examples include journals, personal blogs, reflections, writer’s memos)

• High stakes writing for an (imagined or real) audience, i.e., rhetorical projects that have undergone revision and editing (examples include traditional essays, editorials, annotated bibliographies, mixed media presentations)

• Regular (weekly) low stakes writing, and 1-3 significant, high stakes writing projects

• Composition in multiple genres (e.g., an editorial, a creative nonfiction story, and an academic essay)

• Presentations, class discussion, small group work, peer review/workshop

• Library Research session with a librarian

• Conferences

Assessment Tasks

ADAPT:

• Read and analyze multiple genres.

• Compose with intention in multiple genres.

• Demonstrate an awareness of the ways genre conventions impact reader-writer interaction.

INQUIRE:

• Formulate a researchable question.

• Find and analyze relevant information.

• Think critically about and evaluate information sources.

• Identify a conversation.

CONNECT:

• Use evidence with purpose.

• Write in conversation with others.

• Consider multiple perspectives.

• Maintain focus and coherence through a single piece of writing.

REFLECT:

• Articulate and reflect on their own reading process.

• Articulate and reflect on their own search process.

• Articulate and reflect on their own writing process.

• Develop a rhetorical vocabulary.

Assessment Tools (the following is not an exhaustive or required list of assessment possibilities, but offers examples of how an instructor might gather information about a student’s learning)

Students’ ability to adapt may be assessed by the following:

• Composition in genres used in diverse rhetorical situations

• Low stakes and high stakes writing

• Reflective writing

Students’ ability to inquire may be assessed by the following:

• Reading journals

• Research notes

• Annotations

• Annotated Bibliography

• Conferences/conference preparation

Students’ ability to connect may be assessed by the following:

• Essays

• Annotated Bibliographies

• Letters

• Editorials

• Review articles

• Multimodal compositions

Students’ ability to reflect may be assessed by the following:

• Learning journals

• Reading journals

• Writer’s memos

• Letters

• Annotations

• Emails

• Rhetorical situation

• Genre awareness

• Invention/Curiosity

• Reflection/Metacognition

• Writing to learn

• Information literacy

• Non-agonistic rhetoric

• Summary

• Research as an iterative process

• Accessing resources

• Habits of successful studentship